Quilt Design

I’ve made it to the other side of the Season of Deadlines which has basically been a slog of every free moment being spoken for. This last weekend was the first time I didn’t have something that I was tragically behind on which was freeing but it’s been a while so I felt a little lost!

One of the things I’ve been wanting to do for a while is create a video of my quilt design process. Well this weekend I finally sat down and did it. It’s my first time creating a video but I tried to talk about what I was doing while I was doing it. It’s a mixture of Illustrator chat and design chat, and I actually really enjoyed making it so am hoping to do more in the future. If you want to be notified of future videos as they come out, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel. (Please let me know if that link doesn’t work!)

The video is just shy of 30 minutes but goes through the entire process of designing a Quilt Design a Day (QDAD) using Illustrator.

And here are the designs I created. I ended up making a couple as I doinked around learning the video software. I actually like the one that didn’t end up in the video better, but that’s how “live design” goes I guess! 😉

Speaking of tools, I gave a talk at QuiltCon a couple of weeks ago about some of the design tools available for quilters. It was recorded, but I’m not sure how or if they’re going to make it available. So I’ve turned the talk into a pdf file. Most of what I said is in the “notes” area of the slides. I’m not sure what the rules are on posting it, so if you’re interested in it, leave a comment saying so, and I’ll email you the pdf.

Anne, I’d love to read the pdf you mentioned. Was all agog watching your video. I bought your pattern for -can’t remember the name but it reminds me of a Southwest Indian design. Love your shapes and your colors!! Glad I found this website.

Really enjoyed watching this, thank you! I don’t have Illustrator, but I use Inkscape and there are definitely some tricks I can use there, I think. 🙂 Would also love a copy of your tool talk pdf if possible, thank you in advance!

I used a program that has a terrible name but was recommended to me by another academic. It’s called iShowU HD, it’s for Mac only, though. The little circles are created every time I click. I should maybe mention that but of course I don’t see them as it’s recording so I forget!

I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I’m planning to do another one tomorrow or Saturday. It’s spring break so I suddenly have a bit more time than usual (although the to do list is no shorter!)
I’ve emailed the pdf of the talk. Let me know what you think!

What a cool design. I found myself trying to figure out how you would piece it together…so intriguing!! I would love to hear about your design tools! Would you make me a cassette, or maybe an 8-track so I can listen too it? Just kidding…I’d love a PDF though! I think perhaps I need an alternative to designing.

Hahahaha I’ll get right on making a recording! I mean I COULD just do the talk over again and record it and throw it on youtube. I should re-read my contract before I do anything like that, though!
As for the piecing it’s using a quarter circle block and a quarter ring block. It looks way more complex than it is!

I’ve emailed the pdf of the talk for now. Lemme know if you have any questions or anything! I’m always happy to chat design and tools.

Thank you for linking to my post in your newsletter! 😀 I appreciate it. And the videos have been a lot of fun.
I’m emailing you the pdf. I’m not sure if there’s anything in here that you don’t know already, but let me know if you have any questions!

Loved your Illustrator video. I use Illustrator for my design but am self taught and have a lot to learn. Do you ever use layers to build a design so you can easily group and recolor? Also curious why you save as a png instead of jpeg? Is one better than another for putting up on your blog? Please send me your QuiltCon pdf. I didn’t get to go this year but would have loved to have heard your talk. Thanks. Hope you do more videos.

Hi there! Sorry for taking so long to respond, I’ve been doing a ton of travel recently.
I don’t use layers too much, although I do when I trying out quilting designs. If I want to easily manipulate things, I’ll put them in a group since I have a keyboard shortcut for that and ungrouping. Let’s see, png vs jpg. When you save as jpg, it can leave some weird artifacts (discolored areas). I save as pngs because it doesn’t have that problem. Although when you upload them to facebook, it converts them to jpgs and adds those artifacts.
I’ve emailed the pdf. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Hi Anne,
I’ve just visited for the first time after a mention of this post in from The Elven Garden. Since we live in Australia, getting to Quilt Con is unlikely! (But I can still hope, right?!) I’d love a copy of your PDF. Thanks for such a generous offer. I’m looking forward to reading more of your blog.

It is totally okay to hope!! It is a LONG haul but you just never know. 😀
I’ve sent the PDF in an email, please feel free to ask me any questions. It’s a pretty broad overview, but I can try to answer more specifics if you have them. 🙂

Hi Anne. Not sure if you saw my comment from March 22 so am checking in again. I’d like a copy of your PDF and also wondering about why you save to the web as a png instead of jpeg. Is one better than the other for posting online?

Sorry for not responding earlier! Honestly it probably doesn’t make a huge difference to save as png vs jpg. Illustrator just does what you last did, and at one point I saved as a png and have been saving it that way every since. 🙂

Hi Anne! I love this tutorial so much. Hopefully I’ll be getting a new computer soon and will start playing around with illustrator. Now when I look at the second to last variation on this post all I see is BB-8 droids. It would be fun to make with his color palette. Hope all is well!

I read about your Adobe Illustrator design skills on the Adobe Website. Came to your website to learn more. I would love your pdf from Quilt Con. Thank you for writing this post and filming the video! I truly appreciate it!!! I would love more! You are epicly awesome!